Oxygen regulator



June 29,1943. 'w. A. REICHEL 2,322,883

OXYGEN REGULATOR Filed Oct. 7, 1939 l Vlaolz'm irARe icl zel ,extremely high altitudes.

Patented June 29, 1943 OXYGEN REGULATOR Wladimir A. Reichel, Bellerose, Bendix Aviation Corporation,

N. Y., assignor to South Bend, Ind.,

a corporation of Delaware Application October 7, 1939, Serial'No. 298,516

3 Claims.

This invention relates to fluid regulators and more particularly to oxygen regulators for use in aviation for supplying oxygen to a mask worn by the pilot or to the cabin of an airplane.

A problem confronted in aeronautics during stratosphere flights is the lack of oxygen at the This deficiency must be compensated for, and it is obvious that the rate at which the oxygen or to the cabin of the plane should be varied in .accordance with changes in altitude. The rate of change should be such that the regulator will pass greater amounts of oxygen with progressive increase in altitude because the higher the altitude the rarer is the air and, therefore, less natural oxygen is available. This consideration imports another factor, namely, when the pilot I uses an oxygen mask, it is essential that he obtain more oxygen with an increase in altitude so as to counteract certain physiological effects.

that occur with change in altitude. The regulation of the varying supply constitutes an important factor for the reason that a deficient supply or an excessive supply at a given altitude will have injurious effects upon the pilot or the occupants of the cabin.

One of the objects of the presentinvention is to provide a novel oxygen regulator having means responding to changing altitudes for indicating the proper amount ticular altitude. I

A further object of the invention is to provide an oxygen regulator comprising. a novel combination including means responsive to a change in a condition of the atmosphere so as to indicate the. extent of the change, and means defining a spirally adjustable path for the oxygen adapted to be operated so as to vary the rate of supply of oxygen in accordance with the indication of the change in the atmospheric conditions.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel combination comprising an oxygen regulalator which is simple in construction and accurate in operation.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more fully hereinafter from a consideration of the detailed description which follows, taken together with the accompanying drawing wherein one embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawing is for purposes of illustration and description only, and is not to be construed as de fining thelimits of the invention, reference being had for this purpose to the appended claims.

is supplied to the pilot of oxygen needed at the par- In the drawing, wherein like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 is a top view illustrating one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a front view of in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig.1.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, the present invention is shown as embodying a generally cylindrical enclosure or casing 5 having a spirally shaped or cross-sectionally eccentric interior 6, an inlet 1 and an outlet 3 disposed on opposite sides of a sector-like wall portion 9 formed intergrally with-and dividing the casing.

A supply pipe in is provided with a valve H adapted to be controlled manually which communicates with an oxygen supply tank ,(not shown) on one side and with the inlet 1 of casing 5 on the other side. A second pipe I2 is provided with a manually controlled valve I3 which communicates with the outlet 8 of casing 5 on one side and with the cabin of the airplane or the mask of a pilot on the other side so as to supply oxygen to the latter. I

A hollow shaft I4 is mounted for rotation within the casing 5 in any suitable manner and has a vane I5 attached thereto or formed integrally therewith. A spiral coil spring I6 is secured at one end to a stationary portion of the casing, as at IT, and is secured at'its other end to the hollow shaft l4 and serves to yieldably urge the vane l5 in a counterclockwise or to a closed position. As the vane travels in a clockwise direction against the tension of the spring I 6, the outer end of said vane together with the interior of easing 6 define a spirally or progressively increasing passage, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

The movement of the vane I5 is produced by the pressure of the oxygen communicated'by pipe III.

to inlet 1 and controlled by means of the valve H. l

An ind cator or pointer I8 is secured to an extending portion of the hollow shaft M outside of the casing 5 (Fig. 1) and is actuated upon rotation of the shaft to indicate the position of the vane l5 within the valve casing. The tension of the spiral spring I6 and the arrangement of the vane I 5, shaft M, and indicator I 8 are such as to ind cate at the various positions of the vane IS, the amount of oxygen passing through the valve.

A shaft I9 is rotatably mounted within the holthe device illustrated row shaft H and has an extension at its one end carrying a dial 28 (Figs. 1 and 2). The other end of the shaft l9 extends from the opposite side of the casing and has splined thereto a gear member 2| meshing with another gear 22' carried by a support 23 provided on the outside of the casing 5.

Means are now provided for actuating the dial 20 in accordance with changes in barometric pressure or altitude and, in the embodiment illustrated, said means comprise an aneroid device in the form of expansible and contractible bellows 24 mounted upon a fixed support 25. The bellows are provided at the free end thereof with an upwardly extending link 26 pivotally connected at 21 to one end of an arm 28 pivoted at 28a. The arm 28 is provided at its other end with a gear sector 29 which meshes with an intermediate gear 22a, the latter, in turn, meshing with the gear 22 to drive gear 2| and shaft l9.

The dial 20 is provided with an index or indicator 30 thereon, which is moved in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction with the dial in accordance with the expansion or contraction of the bellows 24.

' The end of the indicator I8 is bent outwardly and over the dial 20 so as to lie in a plane parallel to said dial 211 in front thereof and is adapted to move about the outward portion of the dial.

In operation, as the aircraft upon which the device'is utilized gains altitude, the bellows 24 will expand due to the decrease in the pressure of the atmosphere. With such expansion of the bellows the link 26 i moved upwardly, carrying the arm 28 upwardly about pivot point 28a and sector gear 29 downwardly so as to operate the gear train comprising gears 22a, 23, 22 and 2|. Gear 2| consequently rotates shaft l4 therewith and thus dial 20 and index 30 move in :a clockwise direction, while the indicator |8 will, at this instant, remain stationary, thus indicating that vane I is yieldably held in a closed position since no oxygen has been admitted by operating valve At this point, since the two indicators are widely diverging-from each other, it will be apparent that oxygen should be supplied to the pilot or to the cabin and, therefore, valve H is opened manually, whereupon oxygen will flow through inlet 1, moving vane l5 and indicator l8 against the tension of spring IS in a clockwise direction. If the valve has not been operated sufliciently, an unbalanced condition will ex st between the two indicators, as illustrated in Fig. 2, and thus indicate to the pilot that more oxy en is needed. Valve II will then be operated further until both indicators will coincide, thereby indicating that a correct amount of oxygen is being supplied for the particular altitude attained.

with a decrease in altitude, a reverse operation is effected. The bellows 24 begins to contract due to increase in pressure and will accordingly move indicator 38 in a counterclockwise direction by way of the multiple gearing illustrated in Fig. 1. If the position of valve II has not been changed, the indicator l8 will remain at its last position while the indicator 38 has moved away therefrom. This immediately indicates to the pilot that too much oxygen is being supplied at the lower altitude and he will proceed to close valve manually to decrease the flow of oxygen, and spring It will operate to cause the vane l5 to move in a counterclockwise direction, thereby decreasing the opening formed between the end of vane l5 of the interior of casing 5 to diminish the supply of oxygen in the outlet 8.

There are thus provided novel meanswhereby the amount of oxygen supplied to a consuming device is quickly and accurately regulated in accordance with altitude changes so as to maintain the quantity of oxygen at the proper and desired amount.

While the device has been described in connection with the control of oxygen it is to be expressly understood that the control of any gas may be accomplished in this manner. Further, the device may be influenced by any pressures extraneous to the apparatus itself and arising in p a static medium, and the use thereof is not necessarily limited to the atmospheric control but may be used wherever distribution of a flow medium is to be controlled by variations in pressure in another and static medium in which the apparatus is immersed and stationary or independent of the particular medium distributed and controlled.

Although but a single embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, further changes and modifications in form, materials, and relative arrangement of parts, which will now appear to those skilled in the art, may

be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Reference is, therefore, to be had to the appended claims for a definition of the limits of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. 'A gas regulator comprising, in combination,

a valve having a casing, a hollow shaft rotatably I mounted in said casing, a vane member carried by said shaft to vary the output of said casing, an indicator rotatable with said hollow shaft, pressure responsive means, a dial having an index and actuated by said pressure responsive means to indicate said pressure, and manually operated means for supplying said gas to said chamber to actuate said vane member until said indicatoris in a position coincident with said index.

2. A gas regulator comprising, in combination, a valve having a casing, a hollow shaft rotatably mounted in said casing, a vane member carried by said hollow shaft to vary the output of said casing, an indicator carried by said hollow shaft, pressure responsive means, a dial provided with an index, means comprising a shaft rotatably mounted within said hollow shaft for connecting said pressure responsive means and said dial, and means for supplying said gas to said casing to operate said valve so as to bring the indicator into coincidence with the index.

3. In a gas regulator, a valve casing having an inlet and an outlet, a rotatable vane controlling the volumn ofgas flowing from said outlet, a hollow shaft in said casing carrying said vane. means responsive to pressure variation, indicating means, means within said hollow shaft for con-- necting said indicating means with said pressure responsive means, manually controlled means to supply gas to said casing in accordance with said 

